The present invention relates to the field of plant regeneration and transformation, particularly to methods for the regeneration and transformation of Jatropha. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and media compositions for regeneration and transformation of plants of Jatropha curcas. 
The publications and other materials used herein to illuminate the background of the invention or provide additional details respecting the practice, are incorporated by reference, and for convenience are respectively grouped in the Bibliography.
The world is facing dwindling supply is fossil fuel and worsening Green House Effect. There is an urgent demand to increase production and consumption of renewable energy. Biofuels have been recognized as a national priority for many countries in their search for alternative sources to meet their energy security needs and at the same time help reduce CO2 emissions that cause the Green House Effect. The demand for biofuel has put increasing pressure on food production. For example, to satisfy the biofuel need for Germany in 2017 as mandated by the German government the entire farm land of this country would have to be used for growing bioenergy crops with no land left for food production. To ease this competition for land and to satisfy our need for renewable fuels, there is a strong need to utilize marginal land for bio-energy production.
Jatropha curcas is a small woody plant belonging to the Euphorbiaceae family. Several unique characters of Jatropha curcas make it an ideal plant for biodiesel production. These include its rapid growth, easy propagation, low cost of seeds, high oil content, short gestation period, wide adaptability, drought tolerance and the ability to thrive on degraded soils. Moreover, its plant size renders convenient collection of seed (Jones, 1991; Sujatha et al., 2008).
However, Jatropha suffers from several shortcomings that may limit its wide adoption. The productivity of the plant is constrained by the unfavourable male to female flower ratio and its oil content has not been optimized by breeding. This plant is also sensitive to biotic stresses such as viral (Narayanna et al., 2007), fungal and bacterium pathogens and abiotic stresses, especially cold and drought (http colon www dot jatropha dot org). The presence of several toxic components (e.g. the protein toxin, curcin, and the cancer-causing agent phorbol esters) in seeds and leaves of the plant possess health hazards for farmers and bioprocess workers in the Jatropha industry.
The traditional way to improve on quality traits of plants is by breeding for superior genotypes. However, an assessment of genetic diversity using molecular markers disclosed low inter-accessional variability amongst local J. curcas germplasm (Sujatha at al., 2008). Therefore, alternative genetic manipulation tools, such as genetic transformation methods, are urgently required to provide additional strategies for genetic improvement of this crop. Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation has become the principal choice for generating transgenic plants. However, very few reports have appeared on the use of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of plants belonging to the Euphorbiaceae family. The only one reported transformation protocol for Jatropha (Li et al., 2008) is not reproducible in our hands.
Thus, there is a need for methods of transforming J. curcas to provide means for genetic improvement in this crop species.